RFA 5's Joe Jordan eyes 50th win, possible move to 145 or 135

When he looks back on his career, Joe Jordan is pretty realistic about things.

The Midwest MMA veteran of more than 60 fights will be honest about how he got to a few of his 49 career victories. But at the same time, he wasn’t existing solely on a diet of cans for the past 10 years.

On Friday, Jordan (49-13-2) meets James Krause (17-4) in the co-main event of Resurrection Fighting Alliance 5, which takes place at the Viaero Event Center in Keaney, Neb., with a main card airing live on AXS TV.

The fight will be Jordan’s first in about a year and a half, something he says is a result of years grinding out fight after fight, sometimes as many as 14 in a calendar year.

“I’ve gotten older and smarter, and my body is a little more worn down now,” Jordan told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “So I have to be smarter about my training. But I don’t fight as much now, so it gives me more time to get ready.”

Jordan will be in pursuit of his 50th career victory when he meets Krause. He’s won nine of his past 10 fights and 26 of his past 28. Regardless of the names on his resume, that’s no easy thing to do.

In 2006, he got his one shot at the UFC, but was submitted by Hermes Franca at UFC 61 in the third round. He was back fighting two months later and fought five times in the next seven weeks – the kind of workmanlike effort his career has been built around. You don’t get to the cusp of 50 wins in 10 years any other way.

His losses have mostly been to a who’s-who of MMA standouts, including Franca, Clay Guida, Melvin Guillard, Rich Clementi, Jens Pulver and Bart Palaszewski. His wins? There aren’t a lot of recognizable names in there.

“A lot of it was I got good matchups, fighting in the Midwest before a lot of these states had commissions,” Jordan said. “I’m undefeated at heavyweight, and I’m 5-foot-6. So obviously I was fighting some weak competition. My wife was in school, working on being a nurse. I was working full time. And I had a lot of these shows that were willing to pay me to come in and take a fight, and I couldn’t turn down the money.”

Now he finds himself with a three-fight deal with the RFA, and a chance to fight on a major televised card against a good name in Krause, who is on a four-fight streak trying to work his way back to the big show.

A win over Krause certainly could get Jordan some attention, not just for his 50th win but because it would be a victory over an opponent that doesn’t have a record like Jay Ellis, whom Jordan beat in 2010 and is currently 12-50. Or Ryan Scheeper, whom he beat in 2008 – and is currently 4-27.

But against the big dogs, Jordan believes he typically hung right in there, even if the outcome wasn’t a check in the win column.

“My whole entire career, when I faced most of those guys, I’ve been just right there – where it’s went all three rounds,” Jordan said. “Some of my buddies, or some of the promoters would say, ‘Man, I thought you won that fight.’ When I fought Clay, I had a point deducted during the fight and it could have been the deciding factor why I lost that decision. Clay’s a terrific fighter and gotten tremendously better since then. But at that time, I was right there with those guys.

“Against Roger Huerta, if you go on YouTube, you’ll see that I was declared the winner. And it was on my record – but after several months, for some reason it was changed to a draw. I was clearly the winner that night, so I’m not quite sure how that got switched around.”

But those fights are in the past, and Jordan is looking at the present and potentially the future. He believes a potential move down to bantamweight or featherweight could not only prolong his career, but have him competing with the big dogs in those divisions.

“About a year and a half a go, I was down to 152, 151 walk-around weight,” he said. “And I got injured on a job and it put me out for a while. But if I get down to where I can fight at 135 or 145, I can be competitive with some of these guys, I’m pretty sure.”

But first he’ll look for that 50th victory, then take things from there.

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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